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UPDATE: ESPN #4 overall and the #1 forwad, NaLyssa Smith, has supposedly narrowed her list down from 9 to a top 6.. According to an article released today from ProspectsNation, South Carolina did not make the top 6 along with Texas and Texas Tech. If this is true then I think it's interesting she's no longer considering two Texas schools, with only 1 more remaining under consideration.

Posting this here in this recruiting thread. Per David Cloninger, Tiffany Davis is forgoing a sixth year at USC giving Dawn a fifth scholarship to work with for the 2018 class (of course one of which already claimed by Destanni Henderson). Davis last year on Twitter indicated an intention to play this season and next but apparently that was derailed by her continued knee injuries. So this Sunday she'll join Alaina to celebrate Senior Day.

Posting this here in this recruiting thread. Per David Cloninger, Tiffany Davis is forgoing a sixth year at USC giving Dawn a fifth scholarship to work with for the 2018 class (of course one of which already claimed by Destanni Henderson). Davis last year on Twitter indicated an intention to play this season and next but apparently that was derailed by her continued knee injuries. So this Sunday she'll join Alaina to celebrate Senior Day.

It opens a scholarship for the 2017 class, which would be for the 2017-18 season, or next season. Had Tiffany followed through and returned for next season, she'd have been a 6th-year senior, so she'd still been graduated out of the program by the time the 2018-19 season came along, which will be Henderson's freshman season at USC. Which means whatever she decided to do for next season would have no impact whatsoever on the 2018 cycle.

The 2017 cycle is pretty much now depleted of available top-rated prospects, as most all have already signed with programs. Unless Coach Staley can find a graduate-transfer to come into the program - like Sarah Imovbioh did last season - or some as-of-yet unsigned JUCO or lower-rated prospect out of high school, I fear that Tiffany's scholarship for next season will go un-used......

USC currently has a 2017 class of 4 incoming prospects for the 2017-18 season....

It opens a scholarship for the 2017 class, which would be for the 2017-18 season, or next season. Had Tiffany followed through and returned for next season, she'd have been a 6th-year senior, so she'd still been graduated out of the program by the time the 2018-19 season came along, which will be Henderson's freshman season at USC. Which means whatever she decided to do for next season would have no impact whatsoever on the 2018 cycle.

The 2017 cycle is pretty much now depleted of available top-rated prospects, as most all have already signed with programs. Unless Coach Staley can find a graduate-transfer to come into the program - like Sarah Imovbioh did last season - or some as-of-yet unsigned JUCO or lower-rated prospect out of high school, I fear that Tiffany's scholarship for next season will go un-used......

USC currently has a 2017 class of 4 incoming prospects for the 2017-18 season....

I've moved on into the possibilities for the '18 class that I forgot Davis' scholarship could be used for next season. If Dawn can find an impactful transfer, particularly a grad, that would be great, otherwise it's not imperative that it be used. They're plenty deep as is with the 14 slated for next season's roster.

There have been really talented transfers every year, starter quality players, if we could get one with 2 years of eligibility left I would take her.

Good point, but for me it depends on the transfer. If we picked up a transfer with 2 years of eligibility left then she won't be contributing next season anyway.. in that case I would only take an elite player.. an Azura Stevens type of player.

Now that we have room I can see us picking up a graduate transfer with 1 year of eligibility left, especially if there's a really good post player out there that's thinking about leaving their current school.. but I just don't see anybody on the radar.

I would much rather see us save the scholarship and take a big class in 2018.. we need to get young woman in our program that are going to be here four years and get ingrained in Dawn's system. Sometimes it helps when recruits know there is a lot of room on the roster.. look at our 2017 class... Once the class filled up, Evina Westbrook debated for a long time about visiting SC (and I'm convinced she was going to commit to us) but she no longer decided to visit because of the perception of there not being anymore room... I had a good feeling since last year that Tiffany Davis wasn't coming back, but had Westbrook known that she'd likely be a Gamecock right now instead of a Lady Volunteer... and that's the number 2 recruit in the 2017 class we missed on.

I say we keep the scholarship and take as many elite players as possible in 2018. We need to replenish. We lose a lot in 2018.

Thing is, we really can't as a staff recruit graduate transfers to transfer to USC - unless they sort of put it out in the public domain that they want to transfer for their final year of college eligibility, and are taking applications. And that isn't usually how its done.

Otherwise, what our staff would have to do, is something that is generally considered a big no-no in the college coaching community, if not considered down-right unethical by the NCAA or by conferences that any college is a part of: recruiting a college student-athlete that is enrolled in another school and part of another program, to leave them and come play for yours.

If the young woman or her representatives make contact with Coach Staley and her staff, and initiate discussions about transferring, then that's another thing. But it would be more of a case of a valuable player of need falling into our laps here: we need bigs far more than we need guards right now. Will there be bigs out there who have already graduated from their school, that will want to come play their final years for us?

Beyond the JUCOs and lower-rated kids out of high school that I mentioned above, that's about all that's left available that we could use Tiffany's scholarship on. Otherwise, its wasted for next year. After that it was going to be expired anyways, so there's no "saving" the scholarship for 2018 anyways, as it wouldn't apply to the 2018 class to begin with. It's either do something with it for next season (2017-18) or waste it....

Good point, but for me it depends on the transfer. If we picked up a transfer with 2 years of eligibility left then she won't be contributing next season anyway.. in that case I would only take an elite player.. an Azura Stevens type of player.

Now that we have room I can see us picking up a graduate transfer with 1 year of eligibility left, especially if there's a really good post player out there that's thinking about leaving their current school.. but I just don't see anybody on the radar.

I would much rather see us save the scholarship and take a big class in 2018.. we need to get young woman in our program that are going to be here four years and get ingrained in Dawn's system. Sometimes it helps when recruits know there is a lot of room on the roster.. look at our 2017 class... Once the class filled up, Evina Westbrook debated for a long time about visiting SC (and I'm convinced she was going to commit to us) but she no longer decided to visit because of the perception of there not being anymore room... I had a good feeling since last year that Tiffany Davis wasn't coming back, but had Westbrook known that she'd likely be a Gamecock right now instead of a Lady Volunteer... and that's the number 2 recruit in the 2017 class we missed on.

I say we keep the scholarship and take as many elite players as possible in 2018. We need to replenish. We lose a lot in 2018.

If they can find a graduate transfer who could be another rotation piece in the post, I think that would be a very good get.

Or a shooter off the bench.

At this point, you aren't looking for a starter, just experienced depth. And probably not a player who looks to score.

If they can find a graduate transfer who could be another rotation piece in the post, I think that would be a very good get.

Or a shooter off the bench.

At this point, you aren't looking for a starter, just experienced depth. And probably not a player who looks to score.

Good point.

Also, anybody at the game yesterday with any insight on who the recruits were that attended. Nikki alluded to having some recruits on campus before and after. I've been looking around but having been able to find out anything. It was a Sunday game, a big one at that.. with a packed house so I'm sure we had several on hand.

USC and the fans put out a great showcase for recruits yesterday so hopefully there were a good number of recruits in for the UK game. The love towards Tiff and Lay was immense. The two sided placard fans and the little picture booklets were a great touch.

I didn't see any recognizable recruits (seemed a lot harder to spot recruits in CLA this year than it was in past years), but I did catch this tweet from 2020 PG recruit Loyal McQueen (Florence, SC), expressing she had a great visit.

UPDATE: ESPN #6 overall and #1 wing, Aquira DeCosta, recently reintroduced South Carolina to the list of schools she's considering. South Carolina was trimmed from her list during the last cut but has since rejoined... one can only think Henderson's commitment to SC has something to do with it (they played USA Basketball together).

DeCosta is now considering South Carolina, Washington, Tennessee, Louisville, UCLA, Baylor and Oklahoma.

Posting this here in this recruiting thread. Per David Cloninger, Tiffany Davis is forgoing a sixth year at USC giving Dawn a fifth scholarship to work with for the 2018 class (of course one of which already claimed by Destanni Henderson). Davis last year on Twitter indicated an intention to play this season and next but apparently that was derailed by her continued knee injuries. So this Sunday she'll join Alaina to celebrate Senior Day.

Yes, this is something I predicted several weeks ago. I look for Dawn to bring in another player or quality transfer for the 17 class.

UPDATE: ESPN #4 overall and the #1 forwad, NaLyssa Smith, has supposedly narrowed her list down from 9 to a top 6.. According to an article released today from ProspectsNation, South Carolina did not make the top 6 along with Texas and Texas Tech. If this is true then I think it's interesting she's no longer considering two Texas schools, with only 1 more remaining under consideration.

This is what the team looks like in 2018 - 2019 based solely on seniority. I think we look for another guard and a post player to finish off the class. That would give us a total of 14 players assuming no transfers.